I don't recall what data I had at that time, but presently, despite decreased demand for immigrant labor and despite Napolitano's claims contrary to her own government data, illegal border crossings are way up.

US border arrests surge 13 percent from last year
Immigration reform: Can it happen without secure...

Newly released arrest numbers show a significant increase in illegal immigrants crossing along the southwest border, despite claims as recently as Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that the border is more secure.

"I can tell you having worked that border for 20 years, it is more secure now than it has ever been. Illegal apprehensions are at 40-year lows," Napolitano told reporters this week in Houston.

But figures released Thursday by Customs and Border Protection to Fox News tell a different story.

Arrests are actually up 13 percent compared with the same time last year. The number was 170,223 in 2012, and is 192,298 this year.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, reacting to those numbers, questioned Napolitano's insistence that the border is becoming more secure.

"There is no statistic, metric or evidence that the border is more secure than ever. I went out there for a couple days and found multiple spots where you can see trails of people coming in. They were still apprehending massive amounts of drugs out there, this is a very porous border," Chaffetz said.

The numbers back up anecdotal claims that Texas is seeing a marked surge in traffic. The increase comes as Congress prepares to debate immigration legislation, which in its draft form is expected to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already here. Some have expressed concern this provision could entice illegal immigrants to cross over.

The stats show that in Texas, arrests in the last six months are up 53 percent in the Rio Grande Valley; up 22 percent in Laredo; and up 24 percent in El Paso.

While arrest figures can be interpreted in different ways, the administration generally has seen lower numbers as a sign of better security.

For the last five years, the administration claimed the border was more secure because arrest numbers declined as the economy tanked. Would-be illegal immigrants from Mexico either stayed home or went home.

Now, however, arrests are actually up by 25,000. That means more traffic, and more immigrants actually getting through.

According to the Government Accountability Office, up to 40 percent of those who make it over the southwest border never get caught.

But a new radar drone, called "VADER," showed during a three-month test in Arizona that agents are catching fewer than 50 percent of those who successfully cross the border and then disappear into the mountains, valleys and deserts. Administration sources say, however, the system is still in a testing phase, the 50 percent figure is inaccurate and VADER alone offers an incomplete picture.

Customs and Border Protection says they are using all the resources they can to crack down on the problem areas.

"Under this administration, DHS has dedicated historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border. CBP has more than doubled the size of the U.S. Border Patrol since 2004. In FY (Fiscal Year) 2012, CBP employed over 21,300 Border Patrol agents, keeping staffing levels along the border at an all-time high. Additionally, CBP continues to deploy proven, effective surveillance technology tailored to the operational requirements along the highest trafficked areas of the Southwest Border," said Bill Brooks, the Southwest Border Branch Chief with CBP Public Affairs, in a statement to Fox News.

The fight over what defines "border security" is heating up and may help explain why the Department of Homeland Security initially refused to provide the latest numbers to Fox News. Repeated requests for the data went unanswered for weeks by the agency that runs the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection -- though that data was routinely provided to reporters over the last 30 years.

"This is the most politicized, least accountable, and least transparent Border Patrol that I have seen in more than 25 years of writing about border issues," said Jerry Kammer, former Washington Bureau chief of the Copley News Service and recipient of the George Polk Award for investigative reporting and 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. "When it comes to border security, the Obama administration has gone from 'yes we can' to 'let's not talk about it.' This latest move to block the public's right to know extends a pattern of dishonesty that has been developing for two years."

Kammer began writing about immigration as a Mexico correspondent for the Arizona Republic.

Critics say Napolitano is trying to move the goal posts, by changing the long-time definition of border security away from one that centers on the number of arrests.

Napolitano now says that is too narrow a definition -- that the border is more secure because there are more agents and infrastructure, and crime rates are down. [Translation: her old metrics show border control is failing, so she wants to change the metrics ... just as the administration has redefined the CPI.]

"By all the different measures one looks at on the border, they're all trending in the right direction and strongly so," Napolitano said Thursday. "When you actually look at the numbers it's a record of manpower and technology and by the way, total air coverage that we've never had before. So in terms of the resources that have been deployed here, its' more than ever."

Many in Congress aren't buying it.

"Texans -- and all Americans -- would appreciate a healthy dose of reality from Secretary Napolitano. She should admit the border is far from secure and commit to implementing a clear metric to measure security, something her department has not done since 2010 and continues to resist," said Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

"For years, Secretary Napolitano has been trying to lead us to believe the border is more secure than ever. There is no evidence that that is true. Statistics go up, they go down, and she seems to have it both ways," said Chaffetz, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the "Gang of Eight" -- which is drafting immigration legislation -- admits defining what border security means is complicated.

"We've tended to hear from the Department of Homeland Security that basically it's 'mission accomplished' at the border and that's just not the case," Flake told Fox News. "I think all of us concede that we have a better situation on the border than we've had in past. And in certain sectors, we really still have a troublesome situation. A lot more people getting through than we thought."

I didn't for the first several hundred times these "people", including Maureen/Mo, began lying about me and others back in the mid 90s. At some point it got old, and it has affected the way some idiots who believe their shit regard me personally, in my real world. That's not acceptable by decent people.

Clipped and pasted from an old post: I will never forget the tone and general words of [a now deceased rec.windsurfing Leftard] response when some nice guy asked an honest, nonconfrontational question about some topical political issue [he] didn't agree with: "STFU, you goddam son of a bitch. You're not welcome here." I emailed his target and was convinced that he could handle it by himself, else I’d have found a way to plaster that whole conversation all over [his] personal and professional lives. Yet the cowards and sympathizers in rec.w let it slide. That was roughly when and why I quit that cesspool, and probably contributed to the forum's total collapse not long afterward.

I don't brook bullies, and neither should you. I hope you don't dismiss your kids so lightly when they point it out to you. Too many people have died directly because of it.

After their behavior certified these sick posters as inconsequential, subhuman, incorrigible, and immoral, my overactive amygdala (according to physicians, my mind just runs too fast) kept me awake thinking of valid adult responses to them. Once I realized they weren't capable of responding in kind, I implemented my filter. If I wanted children in my life, I'd have had some.

If you don't mind the impact their personal blitzkrieg has had on this forum's personality, I'm disappointed in you.

Bard, since isobars is appealing to you here, do you buy all the nonsense that isobars is whining about? I would hope not. The problems that isobars has had in the past, and continues to have, is the result of his poor conduct. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has as many problem relationships here, and I'm not just limiting things to the political side of the forums here. That is fact. He's like a problem child that is often disruptive, and he can't help getting into trouble with others.

SEC. 564. IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDER (minus MUCH snippage of useless clauses), includes:
REINFORCED FENCING- the Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
• construct reinforced fencing along not less than 700 miles of the southwest border where fencing would be most practical and effective and provide for the installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors to gain operational control of the southwest border.
• identify the 370 miles, or other mileage determined by the Secretary, whose authority to determine other mileage shall expire on December 31, 2008, along the southwest border where fencing would be most practical and effective in deterring smugglers and aliens attempting to gain illegal entry into the United States; and
• not later than December 31, 2008 [Bush is obviously complicit, too], complete construction of reinforced fencing along the miles identified under clause (i).

Southwest Border Fence Construction Progress
As of April 29, 2011, CBP has completed 650 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing along the Southwest Border. A total of 351 miles of primary pedestrian fence has been constructed, while the final total of vehicle fence (the project was officially completed on January 8, 2010) was 299 miles.

That “pedestrian fence” has been consistently climbed by young men in 18 seconds under observed tests, according to Arizona law officials. It is thus little better than the barbed wire border fencing I’ve literally hopped over along the Texas and NM borders with Mexico. It does not meet the deterrent or control criteria of the law you cite. Saying “the fence is basically complete” sends a deliberately false message, a lie in effect and, most rational people would say, in fact. If this were Obama’s only lie from the pulpit, I might withdraw from “lie” to “deliberate deception”, but considering the many other proven, public, scripted, indisputable, outright White House and administration lies we’ve discussed in this forum, whether this one’s labeled a “lie” or merely “deliberate deception”, is moot.

For those who didn’t click on http://tinyurl.com/42ebj53 or Google this any further, here are some excerpts from it:
• Today (May 10) according to staff at the Department of Homeland Security, just 5 percent of the double-layer fencing is complete, only 36.3 miles.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s investigative arm, reported in early 2009 that only 32 miles of double-layer fencing had been built. That means under President Obama, only 4.3 miles of double layer fencing has been built.
• While the border-fence construction lags, Mexican cartels continue to smuggle drugs, weapons, and illegal aliens into our country, attracting violent crime. The United States Attorney’s Annual Statistical Report for Fiscal Year 2009 stated that “violence along the border of the United States and Mexico has increased dramatically in recent years. Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States and the influence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations over domestic drug trafficking is unrivaled.” [i.e., there’s that nasty “control” and “deterrence” issue again]
• The government has even warned Americans not to travel in certain areas of the southwest because of crime. In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Interior posted signs near the Sonoran Desert National Monument that read, “travel not recommended,” warning the public that it was considered an “active drug and human smuggling area.”

The deputy director for DHS/ICE testified that more than half of the illegal aliens removed from the country last year, upwards of 195,000, were convicted criminals, but the president glossed over these problems today and wrongfully proclaimed he’s “answered those concerns” about border security and pushed for passage of amnesty proposals in Congress. Notably absent from White House meetings on the border was anyone advocating that the federal government keep its promise and follow the letter of the law by securing the borders and finishing the fence.

And a telling comment from one reader:

Along with the presidents out and out lying about the border being fenced and it being more secure I am furious that he repeatedly referred to us, the citizens of this country who want our border secured as "They"
They wanted a fence..They wanted troops....( They..the enemy) when he should have said the citizens..not They.
How dare he speak of the citizens of this country that way.

Q.
E.
D.

Printing it vertically indicates finality.

Hell, while I'm at it,
A
G
W
is
only
slightly
A,
debatably
G,
and
cyclically
W,
and
ranks
18th
among
the
world's
problems.

Hey, it worked. I just saved the world tens of trillions of wasted dollars. We shouldda thunk of that long ago.

Someday, MAYBE, you guys will learn not to get too cocky about digging up the archives. They virtually always remind us how well I defended my comments originally.

[quote="isobars"]Yer busted, Poinster. Ya made me look, which revealed your deceptive omission of this response from me back then:

Snip

You stopped reading too soon.

My reply to that on May 14 2011:
Mike, you either didn't read or understand paragraph D:

"(D) LIMITATION ON REQUIREMENTS- Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location."

Which means the Secretery of homeland security was given discretion as to what sort of barriers and other measures to install. I believe the final design was approved by Secretary Chertoff. The Obama administration continued the work based on that design.

DeMint keeps referencing the original bill, but neglects to mention that it was amended in the budget reconciliation process. His subsequent amendments to the law failed.

So, Obama did not lie. His Administration has complied with the law as it exists, not as DeMint, or you, would like it to be.

You're isolating the fence issue (and ignoring its requirement to stop vehicles). The primary lie of DHS and the President, as exposed and explained back than and again very recently, is that border security has improved.

You're isolating the fence issue (and ignoring its requirement to stop vehicles). The primary lie of DHS and the President, as exposed and explained back than and again very recently, is that border security has improved.

I concentrated on the fence issue because that is what you brought up in your original post:

""The border fence is basically complete"? It's only 5% finished, you liar, and a pickup truck can drive across parts of it. A year and a half away from the next election and this lying SOS has already abandoned his job and gone into full campaign BS mode, at our expense and with the assumption that we're too stupid to learn the truth." "

You were called on that point by several people. I researched and posted the relevant sections of the law, etc. The fence conforms to the law in place when Obama took office. If it didn't, you can be sure the Republican House would have conducted hearings.

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